


The Secret

by Grace_Wanderlust



Category: Original Work
Genre: Cheating, F/M, Light Angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-31
Updated: 2019-12-31
Packaged: 2021-02-27 07:54:08
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,509
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22053601
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Grace_Wanderlust/pseuds/Grace_Wanderlust
Summary: They're both married.But that doesn't mean anything.
Relationships: Original Female Character/Original Male Character
Kudos: 2





	The Secret

**Author's Note:**

> I just wanted to warn you that English is not my first language. Anyway, I hope you'll like it!

The alarm rings at 9 AM. The curtains stop the June sun from invading the room, but Christopher puts an end to the darkness, reaching out to the light switch. He touches Sarah’s back. She has already opened her eyes, but she hasn’t moved yet.

“You should get up,” he whispers with a sigh. “You’re going to miss your flight.”

Sarah glances at him: Christopher looks tired and still sleepy. He has a hickey on his neck. It doesn’t matter: he’s going to be in New York another couple of days. The sign of the nights they have spent together will vanish before he comes back home. 

Sarah shows him her shoulders. Christopher’s hand caresses the nape of her neck, her backbone. His short nails tickle, but she doesn’t smile. She escapes from his touch and stands up, collecting her clothes. She feels his eyes on her while grabbing a pair of clean knickers. She puts them on, then looks for her bra and her dress. She takes out jeans and a t-shirt from her bag. Then she clears her throat and finally speaks:

“What are we doing about the next weeks?”

It’s a usual question between them. She can see Christopher resting against the pillows. He’s looking at her. 

“I’m going to stay here for three days, then I’m going back to Los Angeles for almost three weeks.”

“And then?”

“Boston. For less than a month, thou.”

Sarah sits down on the bed and starts putting on her shoes.

“Is Hanna going to come with you?”

 _Hanna_. At first, she didn’t call her with her name. She said _she_. Or _your wife_. But after three years it’s weird being so cold towards her; they share a man, after all, even if Hanna doesn’t know it.

Christopher doesn’t hesitate.

“Yes.” Then he pauses. “But she’s going to San Francisco for a few days. She has to check the store there.”

Sarah turns to him. 

“Do you already know when, exactly?”

“No.” 

She looks down, annoyed. 

“I need you to inform me earlier,” she reminds him, gritting her teeth. “I’m not always available, Christopher. You can’t call me the day before and tell me to take the first flight to the States.”

She’s being capricious and a liar. She’s tired, looking for a reason to fight. She’s always like that when she has to leave, and Christopher learned to ignore her. He indulges her.

“I’ll call you as soon as I know something more.”

Sarah is going to stand up, but Christopher grabs her wrist. His grasp resembles the one of the previous night but more delicate. It’s not going to leave bruises.

“Hey,” he whispers. Sarah turns to him, Christopher is staring at her. “You could stay here a day more. Danny wouldn’t care.”

Sarah grimaces. Of course, Danny. The owner of that place, a tiny apartment from where he’s forced to move out every time Christopher and Sarah meet in New York. Danny never complains. Because of them, he also lies to Hanna, even if he loves her like a sister. Sarah shakes her head. 

“I can’t. I have to work.”

“You can do it from here,” Christopher insists. “I can change your flight.”

“No.” 

Sarah can’t be convinced and Christopher gives up. She stands up and walks to her bag. She collects everything – the charger, the toothbrush, every single thing that could prove her presence there -, then she turns to Christopher. There, lying in that bed, with his disheveled hair, completely naked, he looks like a Greek god. Sarah closes her eyes, fighting the temptation to come back to bed and please him. The four days they have spent together have been a miracle. She can’t be greedy. She can’t want too much. Christopher looks at her. Sarah doesn’t steal the last kiss either.

“See you in Boston, then,” she says.

He doesn’t move from the bed. Their goodbyes are always quiet and a little cold.

“See you in Boston,” he repeats.

He stares at her until she closes the door behind her. Then he goes to the balcony to smoke a cigarette. 

Sarah arrives at the airport on time. At the gate she calls Marco, telling him she’s going to get on the plane. He informs her that Maria hasn’t slept that night because she missed her. Reading between the lines, Sarah notices some bitterness, connected to the words he always says when she has to leave: “Our daughter is only 2, she knows when you’re not here. Can’t you ask your company to send someone else?”

Sarah's company doesn't operate in the United States. Sarah’s answer is always the same: “They want me. I’m good at my job.”

She’s good at what she does.

_Their first meeting was in the Ligurian countryside on a warm day in May, before the start of the shooting._

_Her marriage with Marco seemed to be almost over. Their living together was a nightmare. Giovanni had invited her to his place to relax. Sarah had taken her laptop, thanking God for having the chance to work from home, and had left. Marco wasn’t happy about it, but he had agreed that being distant for a while was a good thing._

_Christopher arrived four days later. Giovanni introduced him to Danny, then to her._

_“Christopher, she’s Sarah, a friend of mine. She’s going to stay here for a while. Sarah, he’s Christopher.”_

_They shook their hands, smiling. She had seen him a movie, but she couldn’t remember the title. Christopher was tall and beautiful. He was also nervous. That night she went out to smoke and found him there. They started chatting: about the movie, her job, his fears. Christopher was funny and she laughed like never before. They went to bed at dawn, and also the night after, and the night after that. During the day she worked as much as she could, drinking coffee every three hours, to be able to resist up until late at night, when she would speak with Christopher. In a few weeks, they became very close._

_The kiss arrived two days after the start of the shooting. The sex, less than twelve hours later. After a week everybody on set knew what was going on. They started treating them as if they were a couple, and neither Christopher nor Sarah told them to stop doing it. Danny, the youngest and the most naive of the group, looked uncomfortable. He knew, like everybody else, that Christopher and Sarah were both married._

_That dream lasted a little more than a month. Then Christopher’s wife arrived there with their son. The following day Sarah told Christopher goodbye and went back home. On the train, she called Marco._

_He was waiting for her. They kept on living together. Sometimes he asked her to tell him about her time on the movie set. It was an unusual experience, wasn’t it? Sarah shrugged._

_“I never went to the set. I was home, working,” she replied._

As they always do, Christopher and Sarah have no contact for the following month. They don’t text, don’t call each other. Their love is quiet. Sometimes Sarah goes on social networks and sees all: Christopher cooking, Christopher playing with his kid, Christopher getting dressed for gala evenings. Hanna posts everything, everywhere. Soon before Boston, Christopher goes to Ohio to visit his parents-in-law. Sitting at her desk, Sarah looks at the picture: Christopher is laying on the grass with his wife. She gets a text. It’s Danny.

 _I found an earring under my bed_. 

It’s been three weeks since New York. Danny should clean his apartment more often. 

_Sorry, I didn't notice. Put it in a drawer, I’ll take it the next time._

The next time. Danny replies with an emoji.

Sarah looks at the Ohio picture again. Another text from Danny.

_I just called Giovanni. Did you tell him that you were in New York? He knew it._

Sarah frowns.

 _No. Perhaps it was Christopher_ , she texts back. 

Another emoji. 

Given how dirty their secret is, too many people know it. The Ohio picture is still on her screen. Christopher has never been so far.

_They met again a year later. Christopher was traveling the world with Giovanni and Danny to promote their movie. Sarah and Marco had renovated the house and were thinking about having a baby. Giovanni called her._

_“We’re going to be in Rome in two weeks. Do you want to join us?”_

_Giovanni just wanted to see her, it had been a long time. But Sarah found herself in Christopher’s bed after too many shots of tequila. The morning after, he hugged her._

_“I missed you,” he told her. She kissed him._

_“Do you want me to stay until you leave?”_

_He smiled._

_“Yes.”_

_She did it and came back home two days later. Marco asked her how her business trip had gone._

_“Good,” she replied. Then she smiled. “I think it’s the right moment to have a baby.”_

_He took her to bed._

Sarah lands in Boston on Thursday afternoon. Thanks to the social networks, she knows that Hanna is in San Francisco. It’s Christopher’s free day and they spend it in his hotel room. He doesn’t even give her the time to get undressed. He tastes her, then pushes into her. Sarah comes with a hand on her clit and the other grabbing her wrists. After their orgasm, Christopher hugs her and kisses her hair. She caresses his chest.

“Why didn’t you tell me about Ohio?”

He looks down at her.

“It was a last-minute decision.” He pauses. “Should I have texted you?”

He doesn’t say she’s too jealous. Sarah relaxes in his arms.

“No. We don’t text,” she reminds him. Christopher nods. “What have you done there?”

He sighs in her hair. 

“I went fishing and got bored,” he says. Sarah wants to ask him about that picture with Hanna, but she doesn’t.

Christopher gets a text. He reaches out and takes his phone. He reads the message. 

“Giovanni says hi”, he informs her. 

Sarah looks up at him. 

“Does he know we’re together right now?” she asks. Christopher shrugs as if he didn’t care. As if it was normal.

“Yes. I called him yesterday and I told him that you were coming here,” he replies.

Christopher is disarming. Sarah shakes her head.

“Everybody knows it,” she says.

“Everybody knows _what_?”

“About us.”

Christopher grimaces. 

“Giovanni and Danny are not _everybody_ ,” he says. 

“Everybody who was on set, I mean”, she reminds him. “I can’t believe nobody called the tabloids.”

Christopher sighs.

“Amongst all the things that happened on that set, our relationship is the most normal one.” 

Sarah remembers the gossip. An evening with too much booze, Danny disappearing upstairs with Giovanni and his partner Francesco, her glances to Christopher. _Should we stop them?_ Christopher telling her to mind her own business. The day after, Danny has bruises on his neck. Giovanni is distracted, Francesco is nowhere to be found for hours. Everybody knows what happened. Nobody says anything. A few days later, things go back to normal. Danny still has a personal chat group with Giovanni and Francesco, he often visits them. Sarah doesn’t want to know. Everybody has agreed on silence.

Christopher breaks it and changes the topic.

“In a month I’m going to be in New York for that theatre project,” he says. “I’m going to be there for the whole summer. Hanna won’t be there for the first two weeks of August.”

Sarah closes her eyes. Finding an excuse to stay away for so long will be hard. She thinks of Marco and Maria. She’s always put Christopher before everyone else, but Maria is her daughter.

“I can’t stay away from home for so long,” she replies. “I’ll come for four or five days.” 

Four or five days are perfect. She can feel Christopher’s disappointment.

“I hoped you would stay more.”

Sarah shakes her head.

“I have a daughter. She misses me when I’m not with her.”

He doesn’t insist and caresses her back. 

“Five days, then,” he gives up. “We can stay at Danny’s. He will still be in France.”

Sarah sighs at the thought of seeing again that dirty white ceiling.

_Maria was born a year later. Giovanni went visiting Sarah at the hospital, Danny called her to congratulate. Christopher sent her flowers with a note saying that he hoped the best for them._

_Four months later, he called her to tell her that he was going to be back in Liguria for an event that celebrated the movie. Sarah had just come back to work. She told Marco she had to go to Milan for a conference which lasted two days. Marco didn’t want to be left alone with Maria, but she reassured him: he was a good dad, he didn’t need to worry. She took the train to Liguria and booked a room in a hotel near the station. Christopher arrived five hours later, in the middle of the night. They made love as if that year and a half hadn’t existed. Sarah didn’t want to wait that long again._

_“When can we meet the next time?”, she asked._

_Christopher was surprised and happy._

_“Next month I’m going to be in Paris,” he replied. “I know it’s a long journey for you, but…”_

_“No,” she interrupted him. “Paris is fine.”_

_And so, Paris. Then London. Then New York. London, again. New York. London, for the third time. Milan. Rome. New York, still. One year passed, then two. It was sad to think that they met with an average of ten times a year, but it was still too much, given their situation. Those journeys were poisoning Sarah’s marriage, but she never thought of put an end to their affair._

_The same applied to Christopher. They never spoke about it._

This time, Marco gets angry. “A business trip in August? And you accepted?” He can’t believe it. Sarah doesn’t look at him. She pours wine in their glasses. Marco is annoyed by her silence. “Sarah, say something, at least.”

She closes her eyes, then she opens them again and turns to him. 

“It’s my job, Marco. I have to do what they ask.”

They fight, but the next morning he takes her to the airport. 

The hall of Danny’s building is narrow and dark as she remembered. The trolley makes loud noises running on the moquette. She hopes that Danny got his air conditioning fixed.

She knocks at the door. Christopher opens it after a few seconds. His face is tired; that theater project must be stressful. He smiles at her. 

“I was waiting for you,” he says and moves aside to let her come in. Sarah puts her bag on a chair and suppresses a yawn. She couldn’t sleep on the plane.

Christopher gets closer. He hugs her and sniffs her hair, even though it probably smells like shampoo, airport, and smog. He doesn’t care.

Before she can confess how much she missed him, Christopher drags her to bed.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you!  
> If you feel like it, leave a comment :)


End file.
